The Brumbies achievements in a strong season continue to fly under the radar, and NSW farewells a great servant to the game.
What else are we talking about?
BRUMBIES BRAINING IT
The Brumbies are the one of the form teams in Super Rugby right now. If not the form team.
Whoa, whoa - hold up with the hot takes in the comments. Here us out on this one.
The Brumbies’ win over the Waratahs was their fifth victory in a row. That in itself is historically significant - the Brumbies haven’t won five or more consecutive games since 2007.
Since then the Brumbies have had their fair share of success; indeed, from 2013 onwards they played in five successive finals series. But in all those years - including when they made the final in 2013 - the Brumbies never won more than four straight games.
This year, however, the Brumbies have quietly pieced together five straight wins from their last five games and with every chance they’ll make it six against the Reds in Canberra next week, McKellar’s men are quietly emerging as a very genuine Super Rugby challenger.
Not to overdo the stats but the Hurricanes are the only other team to have won five straight this year. Not the Crusaders, not the Jaguares, not the Bulls.
The Brumbies? Well, they’ve just been trucking along in the second half of the season unnoticed (at least on foreign shores) and under-discussed as a Super Rugby title contender.
They’ve only dropped one game at home all year and beaten the Waratahs and Stormers on the road. Almost got the Jaguares away, too. And took it to the Crusaders in Christchurch as well as any.
They've been able to score superb tries via their set-piece platforms, whether it be through an extremely patient rolling maul or hugely under-rated backline.
In short, they’ve been consistently good. And that is a very valuable attribute when you’re at finals eve.
BONUS POINT OF ORDER
For a moment it looked like Toni Pulu and Matt Lucas had pulled off a season-defining tackle.
With a few minutes on the clock and with the Brumbies holding enough tries for a bonus-point win over the Waratahs, the pair held up a NSW player over the line.
BP saved? Unfortunately not. Curtis Rona scored after the bell and the Brumbies won by two tries, not the necessary three.
Why is that a big deal?
With the Crusaders way ahead, the Aussie conference champs the Brumbies and the African leaders the Jaguares are vying for second and third.
Both get a home quarter-final but there’s a world of difference between second and third.
Second gets a home semi-final if they win. Third has to travel for a semi.
Last year, the Waratahs finished third (when ironically the Brumbies beat them in the last round) and had to travel to Johnannesburg to play the Lions. It was too much,
Travelling vast distances in a week is so tough that historically, winners of Super Rugby only ever come from the top two.
The Jaguares have the Sunwolves in the last round in Buenos Aires and while the Reds are tough, the Brumbies should get them at home.
So results were crucial in this penultimate round. So too were bonus points.
Asked about the Brumbies’ finals chances, Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson said: "They’re really clear on what they are. You can really see the identity, how they’re approaching the game, I think when it comes down to the finals where the final will be played and your run with the playoffs if you’ve got to travel distance. So for them, I can imagine, they’ll be sweating on some results with the Jags.”
WARATAH WOBBLES
Did the Israel Folau saga materially affect the Waratahs’ season?
It had to have some sizeable impact, definitely. Time spent not focussing on playing well the next week, or just time spent under dark clouds of uncertainty and negative attention, is not going to be conducive to success.
Some teams can find a way to galvanise under adversity but only if it’s shared adversity. It’s probably fair to say there were different groups looking at the Folau matter through different lenses at the Waratahs.
But how much did it affect the season? Probably not as much as you’d think.
The Waratahs were not travelling well before the Folau posts with a 4-4 record, and they didn’t travel well after either, finishing with 3-5.
The aforementioned headwinds didn’t exist before April and still the Waratahs were very hot and cold. They beat the Crusaders and lost to the Sunwolves inside eight days.
What moments will be rued the most? Sunwolves, definitely. But probably the biggest killer was dropping round one against the Hurricanes at Brookvale Oval by a point.
It set the season off on a bum note that would come to be repeated: patchy attack, effort to stay in the fight, close loss.
MAD DOGS AND WALLABY SPOTS
In 2015, Michael Cheika gave the last seat on the plane to the World Cup to a loose unit called Sean McMahon.
The young Rebels flanker wasn't hugely well-known but he caused such havoc when invited to Wallabies training, Cheika know he had to take him away. McMahon made all the other Wallabies nervous, and his presence made them match the McMahon intensity or be shown up.
In 2019, if Cheika is looking to fill that Mad Dog seat again, there’s every change he’d be looking towards the two no.6s in the Waratahs-Brumbies clash: Lachie Swinton and Rob Valetini.
Both were excellent at Bankwest and both have been strong for the back half of the season.
Valetini has been involved in Wallabies camps before and is built like a brick outhouse. He has the murderous intent to go with it, too.
Swinton is mad, in a good way. The big Waratahs backrower charges around with scant regard for his safety or his opponents’. The Sydney Uni forward also doesn’t mind stepping towards more experienced rivals.
Both will wear gold one day. Just a matter of when.
FAREWELLING FLAHIVE
If you’ve been a rugby fan during the professional era, you know Dr Sharron Flahive. Perhaps not by name, but you’d definitely know her by sight.
Flahive is the diminutive blond Waratahs team doctor who has been running around NSW fixtures for two decades, tending to some of NSW’s finest.
Sharron became the first female sports physician to be appointed as Chief Medical Officer for a professional rugby team in Australia back in 1999.
After 20 years, however, Sharron is hanging up the sandshoes and she did the medico duties for the last time during the Waratahs’ clash with the Brumbies.
Fittingly, a huge group of ex-Waratahs players dating back to her first year attended the match to pay tribute to Sharron at an after-match presentation on the field at Bankwest Stadium.
“The sidelines won’t be the same without you running up and down,” said Waratahs club captain Damien Fitzpatrick.
Congratulations on a fine career.
